


Sideways

by venort



Category: Marvel (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, X-Men (Alternate Timeline Movies), X-Men (Movieverse), first class - Fandom
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-30
Updated: 2016-08-30
Packaged: 2018-08-12 00:55:32
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,643
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7914124
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/venort/pseuds/venort
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>After his apparent death in X-Men: First Class, Darwin finds himself somewhere entirely different.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Sideways

It had taken him three years to determine conclusively that Charles Xavier didn't exist any more-- and that mutants as a category didn't either. After that it had taken him three weeks to find a job.

It was strange, settling back into the old ways of life again: this alternate New York's traffic was the same as ever, and he earned about what he had before. Once or twice people had tried to mug him-- this was still New York, after all-- but he'd always just waited until they got bored. His skin turned to steel beneath their knives, and to solid rock beneath their fists. It didn't hurt in the slightest.

In some ways, he felt, he'd adapted. In others...

It had been three months since he'd given up on finding other mutants. Knowing that he was the only one of his kind in this world wasn't easy.

\--

Darwin's last fare for the day was the kind of eccentric common in both his old world and his new one: an ageing, bespectacled man who had somehow managed to use the word 'excelsior' in a sentence three times during the short journey from A to B. He dropped the old man off outside a nondescript apartment building and managed a smile as he waited for him to pay, wondering whether he'd get a tip from this one or not. To his surprise, he did.

To his greater surprise, by the time he finished counting out the pocketful of loose change he'd been handed there was a woman in the back of his taxi.  
'Sorry,' he said uneasily. 'I wasn't planning on taking another fare today.'

The woman just sat there. She had an air of authority about her, mixed with a hint of something else; as though she was in charge because anyone else would do it wrong.  
'Armando Muñoz,' she said. Her accent was British to the point of defiance.

'Darwin,' she said, when he didn't respond.  
His eyes widened. 'How did you--?'  
'It's a long story,' the woman said. 'Let's just say you're not the only person in your position. If you'd rather not know--'  
'I'm interested,' Darwin said. Other mutants. It made sense they would still exist, he realised; nothing else seemed all that different.  
'There are-- rules. Mutants can't get involved in-- certain events, over here. Don't ask me why; Stark hasn't come close to figuring it out.'  
'Stark?'  
'Oh, of course, sorry--' she raised a hand, shaking her head-- 'Howard Stark. You wouldn't have had him where you're from.'  
'So as long as we're in a cab,' Darwin noted, 'is there anywhere...?'  
'Oh, right. Yes. Bell Company Office, please.'

The drive wasn't particularly long, but it gave the woman time to explain the situation.  
'The office is where we've been keeping people in your-- position, Darwin, at least as a temporary measure until we find somewhere more suitable. Although you're the first one from the-- the other place. Charles finds them for us, and we make sure they're provided for and they don't... interfere.'  
'Interfere?'  
'You know enough to know that history isn't what you remember,' she said. 'Although we don't know the details-- actually we were rather hoping you could fill us in. We've a few guesses, though: no Steve, for a start.' She smiled sadly. 'Anyway, can't focus on that. What we do know is that any time a mutant tries to get involved in world politics or heroics over here, they're-- stopped. We don't understand it, but they're prevented from interfering by some sort of... cosmic lawyer.'  
Darwin nodded, pretending he understood more than half of what she was talking about, and leaned out the window to shout at the car in front for braking suddenly. His cab bounced over a pothole, and his neck slammed into the roof: for a few brief moments, his skin turned to steel, and the window frame buckled slightly under the impact. He glanced over his shoulder, but decided his passenger likely hadn't seen anything out of the ordinary.

'Here we are,' she said, a moment or two later. 'Leave the clock running-- Stark can afford it.'  
Darwin shrugged. 'Fine by me,' he said. End of the day, he could use the money.

\--

Inside, he found himself standing in a room that looked a little like a cheap apartment and an awful lot like an old office that was trying very hard to not be an office any more. It had an unusual combination of desks and bunk beds rarely seen outside of furniture stores, and the walls were lined with filing cabinets that had been repurposed as shelves. The woman reached into one of these and pulled out three mugs and a teapot before setting them down on a desk.  
'We're expecting company?' Darwin asked.  
'Hank's overseeing this.'  
'McCoy?'  
She shook her head. 'Pym. The closest thing we have to an expert on dimensional physics.'

'Although I usually make things smaller, rather than moving them sideways,' a voice called from the doorway. 'This is our guy, huh, Peggy? You're sure he's...'  
'I'm sure,' Peggy said, smiling faintly. Before Darwin could react, she swung a chair into his head: it shattered as his skin turned to steel once more.  
'Impressive,' Pym smiled, taking a seat and pouring himself a mug of tea. 'Although it doesn't explain how you ended up this far from home.'  
'I've wondered that myself,' Darwin said. Pym offered him the teapot, and he accepted with a shrug and a nod. It wasn't coffee, but it would do. 'Honestly, I haven't thought about much else. I mean-- is there another me, over here?'  
'As it happens...' Pym said.

Darwin's eyes widened. 'There is?'  
'Not exactly. Hydra found him, tried to do something unpleasant-- we're not sure exactly what happened, but he disappeared, which sort of put their examination into… alternative means of superpowers, so to speak, on hold, as best we can tell. Cha-- our consultant for these matters can't find him, meaning wherever he is, he's a long way away.'  
'Charles,' Darwin murmured. 'As in--?'  
'Yes,' Peggy said. 'But don't say his name-- they don't like it.'  
'Who?'  
'We're not sure,' Pym admitted, 'But any time anyone brings up the M-word or anyone involved, the cosmic lawyer shows up.  
'Actually, that's what got SHIELD interested in you. He doesn't seem to notice you, even though you're...  
'Anyway. It doesn't take a genius like me or Stark to work out that you're from another world. But it does take a genius like me to notice traces of Pym particles around you, son. Sometime in the fairly recent past, you've shrunk.'  
Darwin said nothing, and sipped his tea.  
'We think you-- escaped whatever world you're from by shrinking down to the quantum realm and somehow regrowing yourself into another dimension entirely. Although I make it sound cleaner than it is, probably.'  
Darwin nodded. 'Last I remember, I was staring down Shaw and trying to adapt to this-- thing he'd done to me. Then all of a sudden I was a few hundred feet above the Hudson-- and invisible.'  
'You're lucky you didn't end up in space,' Pym joked.  
'For all I know, I did.'  
'Well-- anyway,' Peggy said, deciding to hurry things along. 'Darwin, you can help us work out why we can't talk about mutants without--'

The room seemed to twist and distort momentarily, and then all of a sudden they had another visitor: a large, bald man wearing a blue toga with a high collar.  
'I've told you,' he sighed, 'not to use that word.'  
'I know,' Peggy said. 'But this is the only way to be sure Darwin will believe a word of what we've said.'  
'Who--' Darwin started.  
'Who am I? Well... that's part of the problem, Armando. It's not my right to say.'  
'Your right to...?'  
'Those rights lie elsewhere. Somewhere you may well call home.'  
'Okay, I-- have no idea what you're talking about.'  
'No; I wouldn't expect you to.' He smiled. 'Anyway-- stick to the rules, Carter. The eyes of the world may not be on you any more, but that doesn't mean my eyes aren't. Strictly speaking I'm not supposed to interfere, but...' He shrugged. 'Who's counting?'

As quickly as he had appeared, he vanished: Darwin pointedly set down his mug of tea and gave his hosts a look of sheer confusion. 'So-- what's all this about?' He asked, frowning. 'What do you want from me?'  
'Your help,' Peggy said.  
'With your help,' Pym added, 'we could work out what's going on here and--'

'No,' Darwin decided abruptly, standing up: the words seemed to come from his mouth without passing through his brain first. 'The last time I tried to be a hero, I ended up here. Next time, who's to say I'll be so lucky? All I want now is a quiet life.'  
Pym looked oddly distraught; Peggy merely nodded. 'I understand,' she said. 'If you change your mind, you know where we are.'

\--

Darwin left still unsure why he was leaving. He wanted to help them, he really did, and he wanted to know what was going on, why he was in another New York all of a sudden-- but at the same time, he couldn't help but wonder whether it was really his own decision to stay out of it all.

Maybe it was his powers, saving him from harm once more by heading trouble off at the pass, keeping him out of trouble rather than keeping him safe when trouble found him.

He couldn't be a hero, but he could still drive his cab. He could keep going-- maybe not in New York, though. Maybe somewhere quieter: Nairobi, he decided, or perhaps Albany.

And this time, he decided, in this world, that would have to be enough: dying once was already one time too many.


End file.
